Paul Merson expresses his concern about Lucas Perez

For the majority of this summer, it looked set to be another disastrous transfer window for Arsenal.

The Gunners moved early to sign Granit Xhaka for £30 million but - other than the arrivals of Rob Holding and Takuma Asano - Arsene Wenger failed to add to his squad.

However, with just days remaining before the window slammed shut, the club announced the signings of Shkodran Mustafi from Valencia for £35 million and Lucas Perez from Deportivo for £17.1 million.

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Mustafi has demonstrated his ability having been a defender in La Liga for the previous two seasons and, before that, with Sampdoria in Italy.

However, Perez has arrived on north London with a slightly lesser reputation. The 27-year-old had an impressive season with Deportivo, having scored 17 goals in La Liga. However, he only managed six goals in the 2014/15 campaign while he’s also had underwhelming spells with Karpaty Lviv in Ukraine and PAOK in Greece.

But despite turning 28 this month, Perez hasn’t been capped by Spain and Merson doesn’t think he has the ability to improve Arsenal this season. Merson was asked to rank Arsenal’s transfer business for Sky Sports and gave them a B+ and gave his reasons why.

Merson on Perez

“They would have got an A if they had signed a top forward because I'm not sure about Lucas Perez,” he said.

“He's been in Spain and their national team have been looking for a centre forward for a long time and he hasn't played.”

Wenger made it plainly obvious that he wanted to sign a striker this summer to give Olivier Giroud competition this upcoming season.

Arsenal moved early to trigger Jamie Vardy’s release clause only for the Leicester striker to snub a move to the Emirates. Wenger then attempted to bring Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette to the club, only for him to also remain at his current club.

Therefore, Perez certainly wasn’t Wenger’s first-choice but Arsenal fans will be hoping that Merson is proved wrong and the Spaniard is a resounding success on north London.

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